Pompano Beach votes to close city preschool

The decade-old City of Pompano Beach Preschool has closed for good, despite more than a dozen parents putting up a fight to keep the small, close-knit community of a school open.

City commissioners voted 5-1 on Tuesday to close the 31-student school because it would have cost an extra $96,000 this year to find it a new home. Its building, at 1401 NE Fourth St., is owned by Broward County schools and is scheduled to be torn down, said Mark Beaudreau, recreation programs administrator.

"I'm a huge proponent of the preschool," said Mayor Lamar Fisher. "But almost $100,000 is a lot of money, so I'm in a strange position."

The city spent about $250,000 a year to run the school, Beaudreau said. The school charged $486 to enroll a student full-time and $306 to enroll for a half-day per student but operated in the red, Beaudreau said.

Some parents spent the past few months in a campaign to get Pompano Beach to keep the school open. They attended commission meetings, wrote letters and made phone calls. Some made a presentation to the city about ways to save and raise money to help the school break even.

Parents said the school was different than some other preschools because teachers emphasized learning rather than baby-sitting the kids, and because the school often put on events for parents which created a sense of community.

"My daughter how is now in the second grade excels in school, and I know that's in part because of the building blocks she got there," Howard Pavillard told the commission last month before a vote on the school. Classes ended May 31.

Parents of the 31 students must now find other preschools.

Commissioners hoped to keep it open, before they found out the cost to relocate. In early April, they voted unanimously to keep the preschool open if a new home could be found that wouldn't cost anymore than the current spot.

It was the $96,000 it would take to relocate that caused them vote "no" on Tuesday. The commission has struggled since 2011 with whether it was right to keep the school open at the city's expense, and after a plan developed in 2011 to raise revenue failed, commissioners opted to close the school.

"We're competing with private enterprise and subsidizing it at the same time," said Commissioner Barry Dockswell. "It would be one thing to subsidize it if this were need-based, but it isn't. There are other preschools."

The one "yes" vote on Tuesday was from Commissioner George Brummer.

"If it's about spending money, we're also supporting a dog park, and no one can tell me dogs are more important than children," he said.